Overview
gyrojets; learn how to become faster than any plane or tank, on the ground, right above it and in the air, without using helium/foils/blades and while keeping battle functionality.
Introduction – gyrojet/sled
In this guide i will try to show you how to build a vehicle wich i dubbed a gyrojet, because it is an airborne thruster sled, that can employ a form of gyroscopic stabilization to get rid of unwanted motion.
It is also designed to achieve stable and (mindblowingly) fast flight for long periods of time, is very stable during a proper takeoff, and only requires a minimal amount of thrusters to become functional.
a T4 design, optimalized for gyroscopic stabilization with a flat disc like hull
some neat things:
– incredible air speeds: say hi (and Q) to the enemy team before they leave base.
– ultra medic; reach allies across the map in seconds, zip away from harm
– drift acceleration; make speed an understatement once you unlock/have larger thrusters
– economic; gyrojets are very scaleable to any RP budget
– VTOL; stable Vertical Take Off (and Landing)
– active stabilization; become a gyroscope and filter out unwanted movement, when needed
some lesser things:
– not very tough in it’s lightest form, sluggish when its too heavy
– can become an easy target when staying stationary too long in mid air
– assymetrical modifications are hard to re-balance (go to section 2 for more details on that)
– terrible against smg’s when unshielded
– hates recoil
there are building instructions for a t6 gyrojet medic in this guide, but you can use a design method described in section 2 to build your own gyrojet for any tier (yes, even Tier 1!)
extremes of the same design concept, the left one is sluggish but tough, the right one is squishy but very agile, surprisingly enough they do have very similar top speeds
In gyrojets, passive stability keeps directional control in a 2d plane aligned to the horizon, but it’s still possible to lose some level/stability when you crash into something, hit the ceiling too much, or after a lot of altitude changes, that’s where the gyroscopic stabilization comes in to play.
Xavius has found a way to make a design wich is almost perfectly stable and a lot tougher, i will feature it in another guide later on.
Bob’s current whereabouts are still largely unknown, since his photographed brush with death in japan on a crazy prototype resembling a katana, some people say he’s dead, some say he’s still living in the youtube CS wars, and is spending his days safely locked away from society by higher powers….
some people also say, that he might have gone to the russians this time:
[link]
1. construction
Here i will show you how to build a t6 medic style gyrojet, don’t worry if it doesnt exactly looks like it did in the introduction video, it’s just a generic design template.
In section 2 you will see how you can tweak it to your own needs, or how you can build a completely new one, just by expanding a stable core design.
the block budget for this particular design:
propulsion
– 4x t8 thrusters
– 2x t4 thrusters
– 6x t2 thrusters
the frame
– 6x prism
– 21x cube
– 1x heavy cube, or t10 cube
imploding view of the (air)frame.
Consider tweaking the design, or making a new design with more upwards thrusters if you want more elevation thrust, or when you’re planning to use tougher blocks with more mass
modules & weapons.
modules & weapons
– 2x t5 jammer
– 2x t8 nanotech disruptor
there are four points on the edges of the center plane, to add even numbers of weapons and/or modules (keep symmetry keep balance).
I made this bot a medic with anti-detection capabilities, but rails and smg’s also fit, and plasma can be added on the top and bottom faces of the frame, as long as you keep symmetry and mirror what you do above and under the center of mass.
2. build a custom gyrojet
You don’t have to build the exact design i provided, if you want something custom wich better fits your playstyle, use these guidelines to build your own gyrojet!
Use 2d planes to cut space in 8 “quadrants” radiating from where you want the center of your bot to be at, voyager is in the delta quadrant *drumroll*, mass (added) in one quadrant should be mirrored into at least the opposing quadrant, mirroring acros as many planes as possible is the most tough & stable, but expensive design choice.
Another way is to instead use axes wich intersect with your center of mass, and rotary symmetry to create something stable.
I don’t recommend this if you favor (redundant) stability, though rotary symmetry is the better choice if you’re on a limit/budget; save costs and cpu on having to fill every quadrant with the same block.
Making a design flat, or as disc shaped as possible is good if you want to use the gyroscopic funcionality, but not required if you’re skilled enough with the controls to have a good game, while not touching any physical part of the map after takeoff, for the duration of a match.
vertical balance is important to keep handling of the “thruster sled” section in a 2d plane parallel to the horizon for as long as possible during flight, thats why you always should counter the vertical mass offset caused by the pilot seat with a t10/heavy cube, as it has the same mass.
2x t2 thrusters siding a light cube can also be used as a vertical counterweight to the seat, this will limit your passive vertical stability since its not perfect, but enables gyroscopic stabilization to also pull you level with the horizon, as your balance layout will be more like that of a spinning top.
you also need at least upward, forward, and rotation thrust, upward & forward thrust could be placed anywere as long as its also mirorred across the planes i provided, but i recommend placing the rotation/steering thrust as within the horizontal center plane as possible, this way damage will have less influence on your (active) stability.
Fixing the vertical balance with multiple components/blocks (like in this older less stable design) also works, but can be more time consuming than creating a center of mass between the pilot seat and a block with the same mass.
Also the elevation thrusters were used as counterbalance in the older design, countering the balance offset created by the thrusters was also very time consuming, because it’s hard to find out the relative masses of thrusters without numbers.
1. check horizontal balance: your frame should keep takeoff orientation, only go to the next step if this test was succesfull.
2. check vertical balance: your frame shouldn’t pitch up or down, check placement of the forward thrusters if you still get pitch while the vertical balance should be ok.
Helium is the easy fix to stay aligned with gravity, but it ads a lot of drag in the air and will make you a lot slower, and wobbly if the helium isn’t placed in such a way that drag is “uniform” around your center of mass.
3. control
Steering this works mostly like in a thruster sled, with W to activate forward thrust and AD to vector the forward thrust to a certain direction, but with the added benefit of also having SPACE to control direct elevation, after you take off from a level and stable enough position.
i will use the t1 demonstration videos i still had, to show handling, don’t worry this t1 version is just slower and not as stable, but uses the same control techniques.
ground handling
W controls forward thrust, and it can be vectored in a 2d plane with AD, reverse thrust is something this design doesn’t have, and must be accomplished by vectoring thrust 180 degrees the other way.
vertical takeoff & landing
Takeoff always works best from an absolute standstill, or from a patch of flat ground (like ice, bridges, base platforms, or the map edges), tapping SPACE will let you hover above the ground, or make you go to another altitude than “as high as you can go”.
Carefully vector main thrust like you would do on the ground, and then hold W thrust to go wherever you want to go!
(air) drifting
vector a slow turn without letting go of forward thrust, and you will build up speed.
This technique can be time consuming, and won’t look impressive at heights when you’re working with only t2 thrusters, but the bigger the thrusters become the faster you accelerate during drifts, up to a point where you really need to focus to stay in control.
Drifting works on the ground and in the air, but air drifts will always be faster because the ground adds more friction, this is why you can reach the same top speeds with almost ANY gyrojet, smaller thrusters just require longer drifts to get at that speed.
re-stabilization in the air
Hold your altitude and spin around your vertical axis to filter out excess movement, how well this works mainly depends on how flat your design is.
Bigger designs stay stable & level for longer because the increase in mass adds more passive stability, and in some cases it can completely eleminate the need for re-stabilization.
light designs with a small offset in the vertical center of mass can also re-align to gravity, because re-stabilization spins will make them act like a spinning top.
4. Speed & other things to consider
Of course i couldn’t stay away from trying this design concept in the highest tier possible, just to see how fast it would go, and the answer is… well…. probably somewhere over 9000.
Always wondered how it would feel to be an air unit, and to circle the map within seconds… at low altitude half of the time, with a relative degree of control? then this video sums up the experience.
UberWarpDrive ships are the only other design i’ve found to be even faster, because those things have way more thrust and thus extreme acceleration in drifts, but they’re probably not as stable/practical as a gyrojet unless you like trolling 🙂
the highest speeds i could get with t10 thrusters (and lower tier steering thrusters), by using the drift technique.
Im surprised i did not create a black hole or something, because the frame tunneling through a tower like some kind of sub-atomic particle, really made me question virtual reality..
– most gyrojets will appear like a drone, when they’re detected
– balance and symmetry is crucial, and can easily be tested in practice mode if you’re not sure about your design, by doing what is in essence a takeoff routine.
– a “perfect” design can still lose bits of stability after some time and may require you to land during a match, this mainly happens if you’ve been crashing into things, or if you’re flying high speed drifts at the maps ceiling, and decide to come down a straight trajectory (without gyroscopic stabilization).
– every weapon except the nanotech disruptor has destabilizing recoil, smg’s might not give a lot of recoil, but can still impact long term passive stability when firing, plasmas can be placed in a way so that recoil doesn’t touch stability too much, but destabilizing effects will still occur when your barrels are not aligned during volleys.
– a slightly imperfect vertical center of mass can be an advantage in some cases, for an example; when your design is very small and low tier, because it will then not only filter out motion during gyroscopic stabilization, but also level you with the horizon a lot more efficient.
It could also be good for a gyrojet plasma bomber, since certain angles of recoil can mess up your leveling plane, and it would be anoying to land and take off again every 2 shots.
– you can add armor and shields, but it will make you slower and you’ll likely need to fit in extra thrusters to get to the power/weight ratio you want.
– don’t get hit too much (unless you’ve installed extra shields), you may still be able to fly around with relative control, but damage that ruins your symmetry too much makes handling more difficult.
– don’t panic if you’re the only one left alive and unscratched, you can still wear enemies down with your speed and harrasment fire (for rp), deny a capture, or in a rare twist of circumstances defeat a boss without too much backup! given you’re up against rails and/or plasma bombers.
That is because they will have a hard time keeping up with you, if you can handle 5 minutes of intense micromanagement of your movement & firing controls.
– tell the devs to add (custom) race mode, piloting a light gyrojet in those fast corners is fun!
– design a functional gyrojet style boss?
well, another guide done, go and baffle everyone with your speed!……GL HF!!!!
Going a bit too fast could be bad for you, like star trek voyager tought us in it’s infinite wisdom, one time two people were transformed into lizards…. just because of their speed.
Stay out of warp 10 in robocraft, or else your bot may travel to minecraft (even if you dont have or know minecraft) and devolve into a wooden sword!